What to do when there are no workups
Nothing beats chasing work ups out wide on a flat calm winters day and the thrill of finding one is as good as gets, however even with the best binoculars, a fast boat, enthusiastic crew and calm weather, workups don’t always materialise at this time of year.
The Gannets laze on top of the water, the dolphins are there, but not actively ...

Winter fishing means changing techniques to catch fish. Going out wide and then teasing those tentative fish to bite can be difficult. I like to use softbaits at this time of year and try to match the hatch (softbaits that look like the prey the predators are chasing). Yesterday was a perfect day for softbaiting in the deep with no wind and a slow drift. We fished 45mtrs west of ...

John Dory would be one of my favourite table fish. I love the firm white fillets and their subtle flavour!

Whilst John Dory is a great by-catch when fishing the workups and bait schools out wide, and in the middle ground of the Hauraki Gulf, they can also be targeted in close. As you will see below JD are attracted to Jitterbugs and we seem to catch more of them on ...

Good fishermen catch more fish, that’s a fact. How can you become one of these elusive types that always seem to catch quality fish? They even catch more fish than you on regular basis fishing on the same boat. I see this a lot, especially on charter boats, there are always one or two punters that seem to catch most of the fish.

We all want to be one of the ...

With an early bite time of 7.30 until 10.30 we left P21 at 6am and headed to the bottom end of Waiheke Is.

The snapper were hungry and we filled the bins right through the bite time and up to high tide.

With the pressure off we had lunch (including smoked kingfish and cheese from the Bradley’s Smoker), and then contemplated our next move while the tide turned. We decided ...

Winter is probably my favourite time to go fishing. The weather is more settled, there are less boats on the water and the fish are usually larger. While June is one of the harder months to find fish in the gulf, if you go out wider there are fish to be found.

The weather window on Wednesday day made for ...